Police said they have a confession from a Fall River resident that he fled from the scene “scared” after he allegedly struck the electric wheelchair of James “Jimmy” Moore, 65.

Moore — a lifelong Somerset resident born with cerebral palsy who traveled all over town in his heavy-duty motorized chair — died from his injuries an hour later, about 1 a.m. Saturday.

Richard Reis, 35, of 280 Ridge St., Apt. 1, Fall River, was arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Fall River District Court. He is charged with leaving the scene of an accident with personal injuries, death resulting.

Reis faces a sentence, if convicted, of up to 15 years in jail, Police Chief Joseph Ferreira said at a press conference Wednesday morning.

The breakthrough in the search for the suspect’s vehicle — a 1999 Toyota Avalon with front-end damage — came Tuesday night, when the suspect’s wife, Jenny Reis, called Somerset police shortly before 8 p.m. in response to a recorded automated emergency notification system call town police set up with the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department and seven or eight local police departments several hours earlier.

“She indicated that her father-in-law owns a vehicle matching the description of the car wanted by Somerset police,” police said in a statement.

Ferreira said police believe she called with the information innocently, giving a story from her family that the car sustained the damage from a hit-and-run driver Saturday in front of their home.

Ferreira said Reis told police he initially stopped and got out after the accident on Read Street a quarter-mile from Moore’s Murphy Village home, and a motorist behind him stopped and asked him what happened.

The other motorist called in the accident at 11:43 p.m.

“‘Gee, they didn’t even realize that I just did this,’” Ferreira said Reis told them.

“He got scared and left,” Ferreira said at the press conference.

"What do you think?” a reporter asked.

“I think he was scared,” Ferreira said after he participated with officers interviewing the suspect earlier that morning.

He emphasized Moore was not likely left by himself with life-threatening injuries for very long.

After charging and booking Reis at Fall River headquarters, Somerset police began several hours of interviews at 2 a.m. at their department, Ferreira said.

“No one can use that — being scared — as a justified reason,” Ferreira said.

The car is owned by Reis’ father and has been impounded by police. It has two child seats in back. Reis is the father of two young children.

Ferreira said Reis told them he had left his job at a pizza place about 11 p.m. to meet a friend to watch a ballgame. He said there was no indication any children were in the car.

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"There’s no indication that there’s alcohol (involved) at this point,” he said.

The second motorist, who alerted police about the accident, did not contact police during the initial days of the investigation because the person didn’t get a good look at the suspect’s car and didn’t believe the driver, later identified as Reis, had anything to do with the accident, Ferreira said.

Police used parts numbers to tie the make and model of the suspect’s car to a 1998 or 1999 silver spruce Avalon. Ferreira said police logged “hundreds and hundreds of hours. ... Somerset detectives had been looking for this precise car over the last two days, but it was registered to a different Fall River address.”

A small grille below the orange corner fog light contained a part number. "We knew 100 percent that part came from a 1998 or 1999 Toyota (Avalon),” Ferreira said. “We ran every single registered 1998 and 1999 Toyota Avalon.”

He said their investigating officers made personal visits to at least 60 homes.

Initially they thought the car was gray but learned later from Toyota dealers that model was not made that color.

The night he was killed, Moore, the oldest of three brothers and a sister, had been at the AmVets hall on Brayton Avenue for a clamboil where his brother, Daniel, was the disc jockey. He left on his own, as he often did, to ride his chair about three-quarters of a mile home, his family said.

He was declared dead at 12:55 a.m. Saturday at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.

Daniel’s wife, Joyce Moore, and two nieces were at the press conference, expressing appreciation to police.

“I’m happy in a sense. It’s a little bit of closure. At least we can stop looking for a gray car,” Joyce Moore said.

“I guess I’m just angry. I just have to get past the anger,” she said softly.

Her brother-in-law, who led a life of independence and who “didn’t know he was disabled,” according to brother Ray Moore and others, went everywhere in town on his motorized wheelchair, including the Somerset's annual Town Meeting a few weeks ago.

He attended that meeting in particular to give support for the police budget, which was in jeopardy of being cut.

Police and Ray Moore escorted Jimmy Moore home after the Town Meeting, which ended about 11 p.m., with their vehicles in front and behind his 500-pound wheelchair, which two grown men could hardly lift up.

The night of the clamboil, he left without others knowing he had, his brother said.

Jimmy Moore made a bit of fame himself indirectly when he initiated and became president of the Russ Gibson Fan Club in the late 1960s, to honor the Boston Red Sox catcher and Fall River native.

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Ferreira said he’d known Jimmy Moore for at least 25 years. “It’s personal to all of us,” he said of apprehending the suspect in this crime.